Amy Puffer

Graduated in 2016 with a major in Music Production & Engineering. Principal instrument: piano.

Position: Assistant Video Editor at Peel&Eat, a small video post-production company which works primarily with advertising firms, turning the raw video footage into the finished product–typically a 30 or 60-second advertisement. They also do a bit of film work. As the one assistant video editor, Amy make the first careful pass through the raw video-footage, organizing it by category and selecting the best take for the editors to work on. Increasingly, Amy is working directly with customers to make edits. Amy also is responsible for backing up the company’s data.

Overview: Amy graduated in the spring, planning to have a relaxing summer, then move to New York to work in a studio. Still in Boston in August, she applied and got a job with PSAV, a large multinational firm which does audio-visual support for conferences and other events. Amy’s plan was to port her job over to New York. However, she decided she wanted to stay in Boston, and after a few months grew disenchanted with her job’s chaotic hours and lack of creativity, “I felt like a high-tech waitress, where people wanted me to bring them their order and go away.” She started looking for jobs on Indeed, and saw one for an office manager/asst. producer at Peel&Eat. She applied, and two days later had a job.

Amy’s bosses made it clear that she should use her downtime to “better herself in a way that helps the company,” so Amy eagerly started learning different software packages: Photoshop, Illustrator etc. After about a year, Peel&Eat’s assistant video editor was promoted, which opened up that position. While a bit lacking in specific technical skills, Amy was a clearly a hard worker and eager to learn, so they gave her a shot, albeit at no increase in pay. Six months later she got a substantial raise that reflected her new duties.

Choice Quotes: “I love being here. I gives me the opportunity to put together images and the artistic way that images fit with music. I enjoy the technical hands-on part– that drew me to engineering while at Berklee, and in a visual realm is really exciting The other half of what I love about my job is the people. I loved how Berklee people were so passionate about what they do, and my coworkers here are the same.”

“Breaking down a 30-second ad is days of work for me. A good rule-of-thumb is that a half-day of footage is a full day of work.”

“I love my job, but I still ask myself what I’m going to do when I grow up. Be flexible and easy on yourself and give yourself time to figure it out. Also, Berklee pressures people that career is everything, but remember that a job is a job–a way of making money. If you don’t like it, make a change, or at least do something good in your downtime.”

Amy at Berklee, working the sound board. “There are so many commonalities between video editing and audio engineering. Often the technical software works similarly. Even though I’m not using the specifics of my degree, I’m using the general concepts and technical skills, and did learn a bit about video editing & parameters at Berklee. My Berklee education got me to where I needed to be.”

While she has mixed feelings about not working in music, Amy jams with coworkers and makes music with friends. “Doing something professionally and doing something from the heart are two different things. I’m not pursuing music from a professional level but it’s definitely worth nurturing my relationship with it.”